Queen

Named after a candy, the first track off Queen’s first breakthrough album, Sheer Heart Attack, is a Brian May tour de force. All the more interesting in that Brian was in the hospital with hepatitis during much of the album’s initial recording, it’s a real lead guitar tour de force. Continue Reading

On the first album this song was half finished and yet, to whet the appetite for the future listener (read: fill time), the band included it. That version was sluggish and not well though out. Things are mighty different this time out. The piano is played with purpose. The guitar Continue Reading

Queen would never sound like this again. Employing Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” technique, this tune actually harkens back to Freddie’s Larry Lurex “I can hear music” days.It’s a fun tune, whimsical, with multi-layered vocals flying all over the place, I’m not sure any other other members are on it Continue Reading

It starts off simply. A piano and an interstitial guitar. Within seconds it explodes with multilayered harmonies and before you know it, it revs up into a high gear, like a juggernaut. Even when it turns into a near a Capella it still rolls at 100mph.Then, a guitar solo amidst Continue Reading

Clocking in at 1:15, the ballad in the middle of the four song suite acts more like the turning point in a musical. The banishment from love that freddie is singing about could just as easily be the banishing of a prince or princess. It’s not. It’s a love ballad, Continue Reading

So, Freddie saw this painting by Richard Dadd and wrote a song describing everything in it. In just over 2.5 minutes. It’s speedy, it’s wordy (a good apothecary man?!?), there’s a guitar solo PRECEDED by a HARPSICHORD solo!! The song is an epic part of the multiple song suite that Continue Reading

Okay, here we are. Finally.How to describe “ogre battle”? It’s metal/glam explosion of backwards masking, sudden harmonies, mythological creatures that aren’t annoying, bombast, and musicianship. If you marry the early 70s obsession with middle earth to a combination of of metal and pop rock, you *might* get an idea of Continue Reading

Roger Taylor’s contribution to Queen II is a generic Taylor Tune. Mid-tempo, downbeat, slave to its rhythm (hey, he’s a percussionist!). Roger would get this formula right in a few records and eventually score a number one hit about 13 years later with it. I should make a Roger Taylor Continue Reading

In a few weeks we will get to the track that made me fall completely in love with Queen. Because I thought they were Fleetwood Mac. And it’s not like I love FM.This isn’t that song, but it’s very similar. Just about every Queen album includes a skiffly acoustic track Continue Reading

(Update: This post was accidentally named for the song that follows. I apologize for any confusion. Don’t be confused! All 3 of you that read this blog!) Continuing the Brian May dominance on Side White of Queen II, the lead guitarist offers the sadly lovely White Queen (As It Began). Continue Reading